Many believe that it’s humanity’s destiny to venture out into the unknown and settle on distant worlds. There’s only one dilemma: How do we get there? A $10,000 competition launched earlier this month hopes to find the most innovative designs for a feasible generation spaceship. The general concept sees the ship’s initial occupants living out the rest of their lives onboard with their descendants stepping off the craft on the destination planet.
It’s an understatement of galactic proportions to state that space is vast. Proxima Centauri, 4.24 light-years away, is the closest star to our Solar System. Voyager 1 is currency traveling at 38,210 miles per hour. It would take 18,000 years for the probe to cover 1 light-year. If it was aimed at Proxima Centauri, it would take Voyager 1 around 77,000 years to get there. Unless humanity develops faster-than-light travel, we going to need generation ships for crewed interstellar exploration.
The design contest is organized by Project Hyperion and sponsored by the Initiative for Interstellar Studies, a British non-profit. Anyone can submit an entry as long as they pay a $20 registration fee. All entrants will have to design a generation ship including its habitat, subsystems and society for a hypothetical 250-year mission. Andreas Hein, an associate aerospace engineering professor and Project Hyperion member, explained to Science Alert:
“This competition is unprecedented—a true first. To our knowledge, it marks the first time a design competition specifically focused on generation ships has been launched. It builds on our team’s prior research, conducted since 2011, which addresses fundamental questions such as the required population size.”
“This competition uniquely explores the complex interplay between generation ship technologies and the dynamics of a highly resource-constrained society.”
“Most studies have focused on the technological aspects, such as propulsion and life support, while often treating the ship’s technology and onboard society as separate issues. This approach is understandable given the challenge of analyzing these interdependencies. We even got the advice to stay away.”
“Our goal is to take an initial step toward exploring and envisioning these interdependencies. We aim to be Cayley instead of Da Vinci. Da Vinci imagined aircraft, but Cayley conceived their basic design principles, which paved the way for the Wright Brothers.”
While the winning design won’t immediately spawn a viable interstellar program, it will allow researchers to explore what is possible. We already know of plenty of places to go. NASA confirmed there are at least 5,787 exoplanets, including 211 terrestrial bodies with a composition somewhat similar to Earth. People want to get the ball rolling now so we have a better understanding when the technology is capable.